Deliberations

A federal jury signaled a deadlock yesterday on a remaining count in the trial of a Philadelphia investment banker accused of lying to the FBI, but then resumed deliberations and will return this morning for another effort to reach a verdict. "It appears that the jury cannot reach a unanimous verdict on Count One," the jury foreman wrote in a note before 3 p.m. to U.S. District Judge Michael M. Baylson. "Certain positions will not change based on the evidence presented. " Baylson asked the jury to try again "for some period of time" to reach a verdict in the case against Denis J. Carlson, who is accused of lying to FBI agents when they questioned him in the wide-ranging investigation into corruption in Philadelphia government.

The jury in the insurance-fraud trial of boxing promoter Don King began deliberations yesterday in New York after lawyers finished closing arguments. U.S. District Judge Lawrence McKenna instructed the jury on the law, then the jurors deliberated about an hour before going home. Earlier, the judge took the unusual step of letting the defense provide a 15-minute response to the government's rebuttal. The prosecutor was then allowed another five minutes. The additional arguments were permitted by McKenna because jurors were returning from a three-day holiday weekend, and the judge feared they were too far removed from last week's arguments to allow only a prosecutor to speak.

Defense lawyers for former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo moved late today for an immediate halt in jury deliberations and the removal of one juror, contending that the juror posted oblique remarks on Facebook.com and Twitter.com - including one declaring, "Stay tuned for a big announcement on Monday everyone!" The petition, filed on the eve of the scheduled sixth day of deliberations in Fumo's federal corruption trial, stated that there was "substantial evidence" that the juror, who was not identified, had violated admonitions not to disclose the status of deliberations.

A Montgomery County jury recessed last night after 10 1/2 hours of deliberations without reaching a verdict in the trial of two West Philadelphia men charged in the New Year's Day slaying of Dr. Michael Groll, the Abington fertility specialist. Deliberations were scheduled to resume at 11 a.m. today. The 12 jurors ended the second day of deliberations at 11 last night, and Judge Joseph H. Stanziani said they could resume their work Monday. But jury foreman Gerald Dotterer told the judge that while his fellow jurors were "mentally exhausted" they wanted to return to deliberations today in an effort to reach a verdict.

The federal jury considering the fraud and tax charges against T. Milton Street Sr. today begins its second full day of deliberations. The 12 jurors have spent a total of eight hours in deliberations since late Tuesday afternoon, when they began weighing the evidence against Street and codefendant John H. Velardi Sr. The 2006 indictment alleges that Street, 68, of Moorestown, a well-known food vendor and former Pennsylvania state legislator, failed...

A U.S. District Court jury is scheduled to begin deliberations this morning in the racketeering and extortion trial of lawyer Robert F. Simone. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge James T. Giles instructed the jury on the law governing the charges contained in the federal indictment. Simone, who has represented mob boss Nicodemo Scarfo for more than a decade, is charged with two counts of violating the broad racketeering statute, two counts of extortion and two counts of collection of credit through extortion.

PHOENIX - The jury foreman in Jodi Arias' trial says the panel just couldn't decide whether the killing of her boyfriend was enough to merit a death a sentence. In an interview Friday, William Zervakos, 69, provided a glimpse into the private deliberations of the four women and eight men on the jury. "The system we think is flawed in that sense because this was not a case of a Jeffrey Dahmer or Charles Manson," Zervakos told the Associated Press. "It was a brutal no-win situation.

For eight weeks, they endured some of the most graphic images and gruesome testimony ever aired in a Philadelphia courtroom. Then they spent nine days behind closed doors, poring over evidence from hundreds of abortions and debating if Kermit Gosnell was a murderer or a martyr. When they were finally discharged Wednesday, the jurors who convicted him said they were spent but relieved - and were certain their verdicts were sound. More than anything, the foreman said, the jury became convinced that Gosnell knew he was killing babies at his West Philadelphia clinic, but didn't care.

Jurors at the federal murder and racketeering trial of accused drug kingpin Kaboni Savage closed their first week of deliberations without a verdict. U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick discharged the nine women and three men early Friday afternoon after five days of talks without any signals of their progress. The group had only a few evidence requests over the week, including one for a transcript of testimony by Lamont Lewis, the admitted killer who said Savage directed him in October 2004 to firebomb the North Philadelphia home of a former gang associate cooperating with the FBI. Two adults and four children died in the fire, which officials have called one of the worst cases of witness retaliation in city history.

THE JURY IN the Kermit Gosnell capital-murder trial ended a fifth day of deliberations yesterday without reaching a verdict. The panel of seven women and five men will resume work this morning, Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart said. Earlier yesterday, the jurors asked Minehart to re-read the definitions of the charges of first-degree murder, third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and infanticide. They also asked for the definition of malice. Minehart also asked the jurors whether any of them had seen a Fox News documentary about Gosnell that aired Friday and over the weekend.

AFTER ABOUT two hours of deliberation yesterday, the jurors who will decide the fate of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell had their first questions for the capital-murder trial's presiding judge. In addition to requesting the name of a woman named in one of the hundreds of criminal counts that Gosnell faces, the panel also asked Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart to define the charge "theft by deception," of which Gosnell co-defendant Eileen O'Neill has been charged with six counts.

Update : The jury began deliberations early Tuesday afternoon. After eight weeks of being ordered not to discuss the case with family or friends or among themselves, a Philadelphia jury Tuesday will begin considering the fate of West Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell. After a long day Monday listening to more than six hours of often-fiery, exhaustively argued closing speeches by defense and prosecution lawyers, the Common Pleas Court jury will meet this morning for legal instruction from Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart, and then start deliberations.

ABORTION DOCTOR Kermit Gosnell never turned away poor, desperate women from his clinic, and now he is being victimized by overreaching, racist prosecutors who've presented a case built on "hype" and "manipulation," defense attorney Jack McMahon told jurors yesterday during the capital-murder trial's closing arguments. "If it could happen to Dr. Gosnell, it could happen to us all," said McMahon, who asked the Common Pleas jury to "rage" against the prosecution's "irresponsible use of power" and acquit Gosnell of five counts of murder.

A man has been cleared of all charges stemming from a 2008 New Jersey boat crash that killed one person and injured four. A Superior Court jury in Ocean County on Tuesday acquitted Anthony DiGilio of Brick of vehicular homicide and assault by vessel. Jurors started deliberations Monday afternoon. Prosecutors claimed that DiGilio's 27-foot speedboat ran over a 17-foot boat on the Metedeconk River, killing Robert Post, 49, of Essex Fells. DiGilio kept going and told officials later in the day that he thought he had hit a log. Testimony during the three-week-long trial often focused on whether DiGilio had turned on the light at the front of his boat.

A Philadelphia jury will resume deliberations Monday in the trespass trial of 12 Occupy Philadelphia demonstrators charged in a 2011 foreclosure sit-in at a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Center City in 2011. The Common Pleas Court jury deliberated for three hours Friday before telling Judge Nina N. Wright Padilla it wanted to break for the weekend. The demonstrators were arrested Nov. 18, 2011, when they staged a protest in the bank, 17th and Market Streets, and refused to leave.

A Philadelphia jury begins deliberations Wednesday in the trial of a 19-year-old Cedarbrook woman on charges of robbing and murdering an 87-year-old World War II veteran in 2010. Tuesday's abbreviated trial session saw Assistant District Attorney Thomas Lipscomb complete his case against India Spellman, followed by a brief defense case by lawyer Harry R. Seay. Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart told the jury of seven women and five men that it would get the case after closings by the lawyers and his instructions.